Uptown Top Ranking

Catalog Number: SC089Released 10/05/2004

Scout Niblett’s new EP kicks off with her unique rendition of live favourite “Uptown Top Ranking” (originally a hit on the UK pop charts in 1978 by reggae group Althea & Donna). As usual, she infuses the song with her own signature sense of passion & play, and carrying it all is her incredible voice which Venus magazine described as “a full-bodied caterwaul that could rival Gillian Welch, Neko Case, and even Johnny Cash.” The second song “Dare” is perhaps her most assured step toward pop music, motioning toward the table at the party where Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush are lost in conversation. Scout Niblett of Nottingham, England drinks from the same emotional and harrowing ponds that brought us PJ Harvey’s “Dry” back in 1992.
- The Broken FaceHer deliciously dusky voice recalls Chan Marshall of Cat Power with its wonderfully parched edge, but it’s closer to Polly Jean Harvey’s in its melodic precision and confidence, tracing song contours with a gorgeous delicacy mirrored by her simple strummed guitar.- Chicago Reader

Beefheart meets up with PJ Harvey at a Young Marble Giants gig while he’s recovering from a sex change?- Record Collector

Niblett has an undeniable resemblance to Chan Marshall’s fragile, lazy drawl (a reference point every reviewer seems to either dwell on or make a self-conscious effort to avoid altogether), until she erupts into a brief tantrum, at which times she just sounds like a freaky psycho girl to be best avoided.- Stomp and Stammer